1. Field
The present invention relates to a camera which performs focus control based on a result of face detection.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-86682 for example, cameras performing automatic focus control (AF) by detecting a face of an object within a shooting screen are publicly known. Particularly, in recent years, it is considered to realize AF with face detection in a single lens reflex type camera.
Here, when performing AF of face detection in a single lens reflex type camera, the following problems are pointed out. The majority of single lens reflex type cameras are models employing a focus detecting device of a phase difference detection method for performing high-speed AF. However, the focus detecting device of the phase difference detection method has a difficulty in focus detection on the entire region of a shooting screen, and has a device structure that is not suitable for face detection processing.
On the other hand, for performing face detection AF, a structure is also conceivable that performs image-plane AF by a contrast detection method with an image sensor for performing face detection. With contrast detection AF, it is possible to perform AF on the entire region of the shooting screen. However, the contrast detection AF takes time for a focus operation because it searches for a focus position by comparison with focus evaluation values of the previous time. Therefore, particularly for single lens reflex type cameras, it is strongly demanded to realize face detection AF that is highly practical. Note that Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-86682 does not disclose any means for solving the above-described problems.